


to: hilda (cc: balthus)

by thir13enth



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Hehehe, M/M, but you can choose your ship for her, hilda's in SOME relationship, kinda indirect but you get the drift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23939614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thir13enth/pseuds/thir13enth
Summary: Balthus wants in on the penpal thing that Hilda has with her brother.
Relationships: Balthazar von Adalbrecht | Balthus von Albrecht/Holst Goneril
Comments: 6
Kudos: 55





	to: hilda (cc: balthus)

**Author's Note:**

> every time i hear hilda call holst "indestructible," my heart grows bigger.

Hilda senses that Balthus needs a favor from her before he even makes it to the front of her dorm room to ask her for it.

Not that she’s psychic or anything. Balthus’s location is quite clear to anyone that just sticks an ear out to listen. The man is always bellowing and boisterous, loud and proud and with the height to match for it. That’s just who he was, and that’s just how he always will be.

Some things never change. Except Balthus’s height, it seems.

Hilda places her pen down neatly onto her desk, turning her body in her chair to face the door. She crosses one leg over the other, examining her nails while she waits for the three, two, one seconds it takes for —

“Hey! Hilda!”

Putting on a bright smile, Hilda greets him, in a raised voice so as to carry past her wooden door. “Baltie! Just the person I was thinking of! The door’s open. You can come in, if you want!”

He does just that, ducking his head down instinctively as he passes through the door frame. Fortunately for him, Hilda’s second-floor dorm room has the additional perk of having a slightly higher ceiling, so only the top curl on his head is slightly grazed on his way in.

He closes the door behind him, giving her somewhat of a concerned look.

“You don’t keep your door locked?” he asks her.

“Oh no,” she says, with nonchalant wave of her hand. “I can’t be getting up and down all the time just to let people into my room when they come visit me. That’s way too much work for a busy girl like me.”

“Expecting lots of people to come by and visit, huh?” Balthus chuckles. “You always have been popular.”

Hilda decides not to mention any specifics about whoever she _does_ expect to come by. After Balthus publicly announced that any and all of Hilda’s future partners had to first get through him, the last thing she wants is for her _actual_ love interest to be scared off by her second overprotective brother figure.

Honestly, it’s not unlike how dating used to go back before she got to the Academy.

“But you don’t keep your door open at night, right? You gotta at least lock the door when you’re sleeping so that no one comes in and surprise attacks you!” Balthus warns her.

“No one’s going to surprise attack me, Baltie,” she assures. “Not when _you_ _’re_ around. No one would dare attack me when the Great King of Grappling is around, right?”

His face visibly brightens as she says his self-proclaimed title. “Ah yes,” he affirms, his stance widening and a big grin sliding over his face. Hilda thinks she sees one of his chest muscles pop, as well.

Balthus’s eyes spot the half-written letter behind her on her desk. “Oh, are you writing a letter to Holst?”

She takes a deep breath in and groans, rolling her eyes. “ _Yes_ — Holst _still_ wants to hear from me at least once every week, sometimes more. Honestly, I don’t know how he finds the time to write me so much with his incredibly busy schedule.”

“Well, your brother’s always made it work somehow. He’s a hard worker and never calls it quits. That’s what I’ve always liked about him.”

She rolls her eyes once more. “I almost forgot how similar you two sound. He says the exact same thing about you, you know.”

Balthus blinks a couple times. “About _me_?” he asks. He thinks for a moment, then crosses his arms over his chest. “Huh. Well, that’s awful nice of him to say.”

Hilda gives him a confused look. “Don’t you two talk, like, all the time now that you’re out of the Abyss?”

Balthus’s face pales, and he stutters a little — quite uncharacteristic of his normally brazen character. “Oh, uh, actually this is why I came to you in the first place.” He rubs his neck nervously with his left hand, as if parsing through his thoughts before the words come out. “Actually, I was hoping you could do me a favor about that.”

Hilda’s eyebrow raises at the word. “A _favor_? What, more _money_ again? Don’t tell me you’ve _already_ gambled and drank away all the money I gave you — you’re already scheduled for cleaning duties for the rest of this month… _and_ the next two months, too!”

“No, no, no, it’s not more money, I swear!” Balthus says, his hands waving in front of him defensively. “I was just wondering if I could… you know, slip in a note in for Holst when you send out your letter. I just don’t have the money to send it out in the mail myself, and I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it’s all going to the same place, right?”

Hilda considers for a moment. “Okay, fine. Sure,” she exclaims, without an ounce of hesitation. “I mean, how can I deny my brother from hearing from you? I’m sure he’ll love to see a note from you!”

Balthus pumps his fist. “Alright, perfect!”

“I must admit though, Balthus. You don’t seem much of a letter writer.”

“Oh, no, I’m definitely not,” Balthus assures her. “I prefer to talk with my fists.” Here, Balthus flexes his arms. “But I’m stuck here at the Academy for now, so I can’t go over to Holst and wrestle him in person or anything, so I’ll just have to wrestle the pen and paper instead.”

“Just as long as you get your letter to me before tomorrow,” Hilda says, gesturing with an emphatic point. “I owe Holst a letter, and I’m a little late with this one. Holst must be so heartbroken about his dear younger sister not sending him a reply yet.”

“Yeah, you got it!” Balthus promises her, turning to leave. Just before he steps out though, he whips his head back around again, smiling her at her sheepishly. “Actually, can I have some pen and paper too?”

Without getting up from her chair, and in one casual motion, Hilda stretches out her arm, presenting forward both items, and Balthus steps back to receive them from her.

“Thanks!” he booms, turning to head out once more. “I owe you one.”

“You owe me _many_ ,” she reminds him with a smile.

If Balthus hears her on his way out, he doesn’t show it.

…

Balthus shows up bright and early at her door the next day. Hilda hasn’t even gotten out of bed by the time he’s knocking on her door.

“Hey, Hilda!”

“Yeah, yeah, come in!” she tells him, sitting up on her bed and swinging her legs to the floor. She may as well get up, she supposes.

Balthus comes in, ducking his head as he passes the entryway again. “You really gotta keep that door locked, Hilda,” he quips at her.

“Yeah, yeah,” she says, with a small roll of her eyes.

Hilda fails to mention that her door _had_ been locked at least up to a half hour ago until her special someone promptly left her room, unlocking it on the way out.

“So! You wrote your message to Holst?” she asks, eyeing the paper in his hands.

“Nope, but I got something even better!” Balthus exclaims, a big smile on his face. “I got that Ignatz guy to draw me a picture so I can send it to Holst instead!”

Ignatz had probably been unintentionally intimidated into doing it.

“Oh, a picture? A picture of what?” she asks.

This is where Balthus’s smile grows even wider. “Of me, of course!”

“Ah,” Hilda nods.

Of course.

“A brilliant idea, huh?” Balthus says, seeming satisfied with himself. “Now Holst can actually _see_ how I’m doing, you know?”

Balthus looks down at the drawing again, presenting it to Hilda. “And look! This Ignatz guy is real good. He got every one of my ab muscles!”

Ignatz certainly is a good artist, Hilda agrees, glancing at the likeness.

She clears her throat. “Very well,” she says. “Send it down with my letter. My drawer has our house seal in it, so just drop some wax over it when you’re done and bring it down to the mail room.” She watches Balthus fold Ignatz’s drawing carefully in half to fit into the envelope. “You should at least write a hello on the back and say that this is from you, you know,” she adds.

“Oh! Yeah, yeah! Good idea!” he agrees, making his way to her desk — only two steps with his wide gait.

Hilda watches Holst as he leans over her table, scrawling some message on the paper.

This can actually work out for her, she thinks to herself. If she keeps letting Balthus add his letters to Holst with hers, she can have him bring it down for her… And maybe she can even have him _get_ the mail for her too.

Yeah, yeah. This totally works out.

…

And it does.

Balthus doesn’t bother to announce himself the next time he visits her, simply knocking and then promptly entering her room, excitedly holding out what seems to be Holst’s reply to the both of them.

“Here,” Balthus says, passing the envelope over to her. He stands there, waiting and eager.

Holding back a small chuckle, Hilda takes the mail package, breaking the wax.This time around, it is indeed a little heavier than normal, so unless Holst had prepared yet another pedantic letter monologue for her… Nope! There is another separate letter in there! Hilda pulls it out, reading ‘To Balthus. Figured he’d send something through you.’ off the back.

“A message for your eyes only,” she announces to him, passing Balthus the letter.

Balthus takes the letter enthusiastically, practically tearing it open to read the message on spot.

Seeing Balthus’s smile grow with every line makes Hilda also smile. She sets aside her own letter on her bedstand, choosing to save her own message for later.

“Well?” she asks, when Balthus seems to finish reading. “What’s yours say?”

“He really liked the painting that the Ignatz guy drew!” he replies. And gloating, Balthus adds, “Apparently he liked it so much, he’s going to keep it on his desk!” Balthus looks back at the letter. “ _And_ he’s going to try to commission just as good of an artist so that he can send me one of him! So that’s pretty cool!” Balthus flashes her a grin, gesturing to her letter. “So, what did yours say?”

“Oh, I’ll read it later,” Hilda says with a shrug. “I have at least two more days before I have to return this to him.” She thinks to herself for a moment before standing up and heading back to her desk. She pulls out her drawer and takes a stack of papers and a few extra pens for good measure, handing it to Balthus. “Here,” she offers him. “For another letter. And for a few more after that. I imagine that we’ll be doing this a while.”

Balthus takes the supplies graciously. “You got that right! This is a great idea! And I get to hear from Holst! It’s been a while since we’ve talked at all but now we can catch up.”

Hilda nods. “It _has_ been a while, after all. I’m sure that you two have a lot of stories to trade.”

“You’re right!” Balthus says. “I haven’t told him about the time that I got into a fight with that weremonster or that group of rogues!”

“Mhm…”

“Or that time that I won an eating contest at the bar and won myself a free barrel of beer!”

“Mhm…”

...

And so it starts then. Balthus would get Hilda’s mail and get his messages from Holst. Then three or four days later, he’d come back to Hilda’s room and add his messages to Hilda’s letters, sealing all the contents up and getting it down to the mailroom.

Hilda, of course, doesn’t mind at all that she’s paying for mail that she’s sending anyway — sure, the packages get thicker and thicker with each send, but the letters between her brother and her get shorter while the letters between her brother and Balthus grow longer. Holst no longer seems to ask as many questions about her life or write as many ‘life lessons’ to her, his attention instead directed to Balthus’s letters.

This all works out perfectly for her, of course.

Well, for Balthus and Holst, too.

And who is Hilda to deny her dear older brother?

**Author's Note:**

> give me all your holst headcanons on [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/napsbeforesleep)


End file.
